Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 703 - 347 Outside Paradox City

Chapter 703: Chapter 347 Outside Paradox City

This was something that Xiang Shan had gradually come to realize recently.

The Incident No. 1 that occurred at the end of the secret war of righteousness and justice, as well as the race for ever-increasing yield during the Sublimation War... seemed to have completely messed up the surface of this planet.

Of course, the pathogens used in the Great Infection were not just one type, and could not be summed up with just ten or a hundred varieties.

Yawgmoth, in the process of developing the yogwill extraction method, had discovered a type of "command" that could enhance the level of genetic information transmission in microorganisms. This was originally intended to prevent the contamination of culture vessels with miscellaneous bacteria to the greatest extent, reducing the industrial conditions required for drug production to the bare minimum. Yawgmoth initially believed that once he published his findings, no matter how poor or how bad a country or region’s industrial base was, there would be no shortage of medications. However, during the Great Infection, this technology was used to magnify the effects of the Great Infection.

The microbial kingdom, a cornerstone in the ecosystem that even a mass extinction event would struggle to severely damage, was completely distorted by this assault.

The widespread death of marine microorganisms even changed the composition of seawater, altering the carbon and nitrogen cycles. And the new organisms that emerged after receiving alien genes brought about novel metabolic pathways.

A single microbe is insignificant, but when such events occurred on a global scale, even the grand atmosphere and ocean currents had to change.

As ocean currents that regulate temperatures in different regions began to fall into disarray, the circulation of the atmosphere also diverged from the past.

On top of that, the melting and refreezing of the polar ice caps...

The climate of the entire world is now in chaos.

After all, the atmosphere and ocean currents are indeed a sensitive chaos system.

A local change in ocean currents leading to climate change, thereafter causing local species extinction—such things are indeed fairly common.

And now, humans have pushed technology at the most vulnerable places in the environment.

As for "mass extinction of plants and animals," that’s hardly worth mentioning in comparison.

Organisms that died due to drastic climate changes might be considered lucky. The survivors would die one after another due to a lack of food, following the chain of the food web.

Back then, Xiang Shan had still tried to organize people to reverse this trend.

But the resources he could mobilize as the "Uncrowned King of Jianghu" were far from what he had access to in his era as a "capitalist of the Transhumanism International Corporation." The organizational structure of the Hero Teams doomed them to fail at this task.

Fortunately, everyone still had hope at that time. The order established by Superman Enterprises had started to collapse, and the Usurpers of the State couldn’t hide for long.

"Speaking of which, what else have we done? Standardize marine mammals? Probably," Xiang Shan, draped in a camouflage net, stood on top of the vehicle and looked northward, "But... seeing this, that means what we did back then was all in vain. What a pity."

Sand and dust surrounded Xiang Shan. The convoy of Heroes seemed to be piercing through layers of yellow gossamer. They didn’t care much about being spotted by satellites anymore.

And far away, under the moonlight, there was a hint of darkness on the horizon, as if plummeting below the skyline.

But this was not because it was powerless, but rather because the vehicle’s top speed was just a little faster than it.

On the other side of the horizon, this line of darkness was a vast, devouring sandstorm.

Xiang Shan didn’t believe the Old Era ever saw such absurd natural disasters that swept across continents.

"However, judging by the time, it should be about right..."

Xiang Shan flipped over, lying on top of the vehicle, at this moment, he had switched to an entirely new Prosthetic Body. Unlike the previous Prosthetic Body which had an incoherent design with a larger upper and smaller lower body, this one returned to a balanced form.

Xiang Shan now stood about three meters tall. The wedge-shaped mainframe pioneered by Amilcare was preserved, but Xiang Shan had modified some components, resulting in a more streamlined form. The kite-shaped shield that was originally on the left hand of Amilcare had been transferred to Xiang Shan’s right hand, while his left now bore a heavy Tower Shield.

This was the blade cartridge shield of the Sonicon Blade.

This piece of equipment, acquired just a few years into the game, was finally usable.

In addition, various parts of the Prosthetic Body were fitted with containers for nano-metal particles and magnetic field generators.

Mystic Tortoise True Gang and other Gang Qi Martial Studies were, after all, best suited for taking on the many with the few and could not be neglected.

Several independently movable Exoskeleton Armor Plates were concealed by a gray-black coating, hiding their exact lines. Without this layer of interference, it would be easy for others to see the edges of the armor plates, resembling alien muscles.

A city had appeared on the horizon.

It was a somewhat bizarre city. To everyone’s surprise, it had towering walls.

The enormous wall, fifteen zhang or about fifty meters high, stood there. The main body of the wall appeared to be made of alloy, with a soft, cotton-like material inside to absorb shocks.

Neither the walls of Chang’an nor those of Constantinople had any place reaching even half the average height of these exaggerated fortifications.

This was an overt way of taking advantage of the fact that Heroes could not set up heavy fire positions.

However, unlike other cities, this one did not have those towering skyscrapers piercing the clouds. Even though the central tower in Paradox City was conspicuous enough, it was only four to five hundred meters tall. If this were the late 20th century or early 21st century, such a height might well be considered a national landmark. But in this era, such a height was hardly worth mentioning.

The city was faintly enveloped in smog. Given the industrial appearance of this age, it was likely that the smog was deliberately produced by the Protectors.

From this distance, the inside of the city could not be seen.

The vehicle slowed to a stop.

Xiang Shan stepped onto the ground, pulling off the Camouflage Net from Amilcare’s outfit. The Burrow Dragon, well-prepared, took out several large armor plates and casually fitted them onto Xiang Shan’s frame. After this extra disguise, Xiang Shan’s Prosthetic Body looked like some kind of cheap, large-scale model.

The other Heroes also disembarked from the vehicle.

Xiang Shan said, "Alright, let’s proceed according to the plan."

The Heroes had devised their plan in the way typical of their kind. As the strategist, Xiang Shan would point out several "objectives" on the map. Meanwhile, the Heroes could also list things "they could manage" on the terrain map. Then, the AI would correspond Xiang Shan’s "tactical objectives" with the Heroes’ "individual abilities."

If two Heroes felt they were fit for a task that didn’t require that many people, the AI would inquire about the strength of a certain skill from both sides for them to compare and then feedback here.

Owing to the nature of the Hero group, many would also mark "I have a hidden trick up my sleeve" in their personal information — something Heroes generally wouldn’t disclose. This was to prevent the event of a comrade falling into the hands of the government and then leaking information.

This method was a common tactic employed by Heroes during large-scale operations.

Hiroshi Matsushima, with his new Prosthetic Body, appeared several sizes larger than before. He nodded and said, "Take care yourself."